zdl_cryptofandomcom-20200214-history
Blockstream
Basics * Location: Montreal, founded in 2014. * The company is focused on developing bitcoin applications specifically sidechains, as well as other applications. Blockstream has raised $76M to date from investors including Khosla Horizons Ventures and Mosaic Ventures. * “Creating ways to handle bitcoin micropayments and a technology called sidechan that offers firms more flexibility handling bitcoin transfers. Working with Intercontinental Exchange.” * Blockstream is one of the largest contributors of funding for Bitcoin Core. Projects * Liquid sidechain; On October 12, 2015, Blockstream announced the release of its Liquid sidechain which could allow for the transfer of assets between the sidechain and the main blockchain * Elements Project; Blockstream released an open source codebase and testing environment for its sidechains product to public under open source license.The Elements Project is a community effort to create and test new extensions to the Bitcoin protocol, whose early contributions include Confidential Transactions by Gregory Maxwell, and Segregated Witness by Pieter Wuille. * Blockstream has released source code for the smart contracts on blockchain language Simplicity; Simplicity has been built to be compatible with Blockstream’s Elements platform, Elements is an open source, sidechain-capable blockchain platform * Is open sourcing its Proof-of-Reserve tool for increased transparency; most proof-of-reserve operations require substantial transactions that put exchanges at high security risks; Blockstream's innovative tool uses common sense and UTXO values to prove the extent of reserves; however, revealing UTXO values themselves is not a safe method, a problem Blockstream is currently working to rectify * From the Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #69 (23-10-2019): "Blockstream Green Tor support: Version 3.2.4 of the Blockstream Green Wallet adds built-in Tor support for both iOS and Android. While Tor was supported in previous Android versions, it required a separate application whereas both Android and iOS versions are now bundled with Tor support." Team, etc. * Allen, Christopher; co-author of IETF Transport Layer Security * Back, Adam, president & co-founder (Was part of Hong Kong consensus) * Corallo, Matt; co-founder, Bitcoin Core dev, Nick: BlueMatt * Friedenbach, Mark; co-founder * Fowler, Alexander; co-founder * Hall, Francesca; co-founder * Hill, Austin; co-founder. Entrepreneur, Investor, Cancer Researcher, Poker Strategist * Hoffman, Reid; board member, is a LinkedIn founder * Martindate, Eric * Maxwell, Gregory; co-founder, chief tech officer. Resigned in 1-2018. * Mow, Samson; CSO * Poelstra, andrew * Blockstream hired Rusty Russell, a well-known developer famous for his work on Linux kernel, to develop an implementation of the Bitcoin Lightning Network * Silbert, Barry; through Digital Currency Group * Svenson, Erik; co-founder * Blockchain Capital, investor * Strateman, Patrick; core tech engineer * Timon, Jorge; Core Tech Engineer, Nick: jtimon * Wilkins, Jonathan; co-founder * Wuille, Pieter, Dr.; Co-founder blockstream, Nick: Sipa, Bitcoin Core developer, put forth the SegWit proposal and is the primary author of libsecp256k1, a library for efficient elliptic curve cryptography for use in Bitcoin. * Fields, Cory; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: cfields * Willen, Glenn; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: gwillen * Sanders, Gregory; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: instagibbs * Todd, Peter; BTC core dev/blockstream employee * Strateman Patrick; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: phantomcircuit * Togami, Warren; BTC core dev/blockstream employee * https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YKBTIXdF6yF4XPp-3NeWxttUFytf8WFY1y8tZF7c17A/htmlview#gid=0 * Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn quit the Bitcoin project over a dispute involving a failed block size increase, which Hearn claimed was being opposed by Maxwell of Blockstream. * Ben Gorlick and Johnny Dilley quited Blockstream to join with a startup called Crowd Machine (cloud computing) where they no serve as the CTO and Chief of system architecture, respectively. * Employees: 50 Partnerships, investors, etc. * Hyperledger, Member of the initiative * Investors include: AME Cloud Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures, Blockchain Capital LLC, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, Reid Hoffman (Total funding: 77.5 mil) * (Former) sponsor of Coin Center (as of 6-2019 not on the website anymore) * Member of Bitcoin Associated Switzerland Category:Companies/Organisations